I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the challenge of making an interface that is intuitive and user friendly enough for the small iPhone screen. In fact, it’s definitely the best excuse to jailbreak.
New on the app store is Car Finder, a clever app that leads back to your parked car using augmented reality.
The app uses the iPhone’s camera to overlay the direction of your car and how far away it is. The app relies on the camera and a digital compass, and is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS running 3.1 or later.
George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released blackra1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click jailbreak that adds activation options and an add-on blacksn0w, which unlocks latest iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS baseband version 05.11.07. To use blacksn0w, make sure you have this new baseband (check under Settings –> General –> About –> Modem Firmware) and if not, then update to a stock 3.1.2 firmware.
It is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPhone 3G. Besides the tool, there’s a blackra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and the ’sn0w’ option to use blacksn0w unlock solution as well.
Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.
GeoHot, creator of the famous blackra1n jailbreak tool has now released blacksn0w. Blacksn0w is a full fledged software unlock solution for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, having baseband version 05.11.07 found in firmware version 3.1.2. Unlocking the phone enables you to use it with any carrier in the world.
This means if you have older firmware, you can now upgrade to a stock 3.1.2 and still have the ability to remain unlocked. Blacksn0w also enables the tethering option on these iPhones for you to share the data connection with a laptop or desktop computer.
The blackra1n application for iPhone installed as a result of the blackra1n jailbreak process then allows you to run blacksn0w and finally unlock the phone. However, those who already have the old version of blackra1n application installed on the iPhone can upgrade to the latest version by selecting the new ‘ra1n’ option inside the application. After installing the updated version, tap ’sn0w’ in the application to unlock. For those who used the DevTeam’s PwnageTool to jailbreak, blacksn0w will soon be available on Cydia.
To accompany blacksn0w, there is a new hacktivation feature added to blackra1n, which activates the iPhone to be used without the iPhone specific plans from carriers like AT&T, O2 etc. But, if you have an officially activated phone already, this won’t interfere. The update to blackra1n tool also makes it a lot faster, enabling it to jailbreak the iPhone / iPod Touch in just 15 seconds. It also adds support for Mac OS X Tiger and PPC Macs along with the existing Windows and Intel Mac support.
Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.
The new version of blackra1n is available to download at blackra1n.com
Check out our guide on how to jailbreak and unlock using blackra1n and blacksn0w here.
The official iPhone launch in China was greeted with shorter lines than expected due to lousy weather and because about a million early adopters have already bought them on the gray market.
People did stand in line, just not super long ones — check out the empty red ropes — and a persistent drizzle certainly didn’t entice buyers to be the first to get their hands on an official iPhone.
Also contributing to a less than hysterical welcome were the fact that the official market 8G iPhone has no wi-fi (a bow to the country’s regulatory demands) and costs about $730 dollars without a service contract.
From there, prices levitate to a heady $1,024 for the iPhone 3GS.
Gray market versions, found in many electronic marts, cost about 20% less, with wi-fi.
China Unicom has said any handset that supports its 3G mobile standard will be able to use its network, so gray-market iPhone users can buy service contracts just like users of the official handset. The carrier refused to provide info on how many customers had reserved iPhones.
ReelDirector is a mobile movie-making app that brings iMovie-like video editing to the iPhone.
With ReelDirector, you can trim clips, add text and transitions, and even edit different clips together. Currently, the iPhone’s built-in video editing capabilities are limited to just trimming clips. With this app, you can forget those limits.
ReelDirector is pretty easy to use. It has a huge feature list, which makes it possible to do most of the stuff that you do on iMovie, natively on the iPhone.
‘Stitch together’ different pieces of clip using the ‘drag and drop timeline’ interface similar to Apple’s built-in clip editing UI.
Make simple edits and preview these edits easily.
Choose from a variety of transitions to add or change for each separate clip.
Add Text watermarks with different styles and several different positions.
Briefly, it’s a great utility to create short family clips or beautify some worthy moments. ReelDirector is currently available for $7.99 on the AppStore and is currently at the 60th position amongst the Top Grossing Applications.
ReelDirector is developed by a group of developers at nexvio, which specializes in producing such innovative Video and Image editing solutions for the iPhone platform.
More than the default number of home screens, via a bug exploit.
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I want a way to view all my iPhone apps on my iPhone, not just through iTunes. I review lots of iPhone apps and am a keen iPhone gamer. When apps vanish into the void, I forget they’re there (and so Spotlight isn’t much use), and it’s absurd that I can only delete apps in the void when using iTunes. I should be able to do this with just the device.
On Twitter earlier today, I said “iPhone now has 14 pages of apps (via cunning bug exploitation); time to do a major ‘review and delete’ session,” and people have asked me how I did this. Hat tippage must go to British games journo Stuart Campbell and web dev Dayanah, who independently discovered the exploit I now use, although the process of how to take advantage of it appears variable. In my case, it’s roughly as follows:
Ensure the device’s home screens are all totally full, and that Voice Memos is the last app on the final one.
Drag an app from one screen to the next, thereby ‘bumping’ Voice Memos into the void.
Download an app to fill the space left from app-dragging in step 2.
Voice Memos, irked at being bumped, should now make its way back to your first home screen, and you should have a brand-new second page. If you’re lucky, the new page will also include apps previously in the void. If not, reboot and these things will happen. Rinse and repeat the process to get more pages.
One warning: this is only a temporary solution. Open your device in iTunes and select then the Applications tab and your extra pages will probably vanish. In my experience, the same happens during a sync. However, as a means of accessing ‘hidden’ apps between syncs, it’s better than nothing, until Apple gets its finger out of its butt and finally provides a means of viewing more than an arbitrary number of apps on its mobile devices.
Release Candidate 2 (RC2) for Blackra1n, iPhone hacker George Hotz’s software for 1-click jailbreaking, has been released for all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices. It adds support for new iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 8GB and fixes almost every bug present in the previous version. However, itwill NOT unlockthe device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
If you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch 8GB within the last 3 weeks, there is a high probability that you have this new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped. Other bug fixes include an issue with 3G network and some issues with Icy, Ripdev’s installer tool. Also, there is no need to rerun the new version, if the old one worked for you.
For those who don’t already know, blackra1n jailbreaks your iPhone or iPod Touch (any generation) with a single click in merely 30 seconds, making it the easiest jailbreak solution that ever existed.
Blackra1n for Mac and Windows is available to download at blackra1n.com.
Expert iPhone hackers confirm that the newest iPhone 3GS model updates the bootrom to iBoot 359.3.2, which completely blocks all the current jailbreak solutions, including PwnageTool and blackra1n. The new model that started shipping last week has an iBoot that ‘fixes’ 24kpwn exploit, which is currently the base of all the aforementioned jailbreak solutions.
Found at first by a hacker named Mathieu Hervais, it has now been confirmed by DevTeam members CPICH and MuscleNerd. This means that the hackers will now have to work hard on finding a completely new solution.
Those who want to jailbreak might be able to find an older/refurbished iPhone with an earlier boot ROM. Otherwise, you will have to wait till the next major jailbreak solution, which might take months.
Apple has been preventing users from jailbreaking since the first ever firmware update. The main reason behind this is prevent customers from unlocking their iPhones to use with different carriers. Most jailbroken devices end up being unlocked at some stage, which has a negative impact on carrier’s monopoly of the device. This indirectly effects Apple’s earnings.
Another reason could be piracy, which too has a similar impact in terms of reduction in revenue from the AppStore. But preventing jailbreak to stop piracy sounds pretty lame as Apple definitely has the potential to develop a better and effective anti-piracy system.
Pretty bad news but will it really prevent you from getting a new iPhone 3GS?
George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released the Mac version of blackra1n, his 1-click jailbreak solution. Just like the Windows version, it is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPod Touch 2G and iPhone 3G. Besides the tool, there’s a blackra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and Icy.
A list of all installed apps, which can be filtered, like in Finder on Mac OS X. C'mon, Apple - how about it?
Since getting my iPhone, I’ve become a certified app junkie, justified somewhat by the fact I review apps for various publications on- and offline, and for my own website, iPhoneTiny.com. Despite regular clearouts, my home screens often end up full, not least because many games remain on the device, to avoid my losing my progress. (Apple, in its infinite wisdom, still doesn’t provide any means of backing-up progress and optionally reinstating it when you reinstall an app. It’s like Apple saw the cheapskate end of the DS market—carts without battery back-up—and went “we’d like a piece of that pie!”)
Having been commissioned to write some group reviews recently, I’m now at the stage where I have eleven full home screens and dozens of apps in ‘the void’—that place apps go when they aren’t allowed to sit on a home screen. Apple’s suggestion: use Spotlight, and that’s fine if you can remember every app you have installed. If not, tough. (And rearranging them in iTunes to get the most ‘important’ ones on the 11 visible home screens isn’t a great tip, given that iTunes appears prone to crashing in a nasty fashion when rearranging apps—usually after you’ve spent an irritating 15 minutes doing so.)
Various people have tried designing an improved springboard for non-jailbroken devices, most recently including Bruce Tognazzini, but these tend to lack the elegance of Apple’s existing solution. Tognazzini offers labels and vertical scrolling in pages, but Lukas Mathis argues that this is too complex, and I agree. (Hat tip for these links: Daring Fireball.) The springboard Exposé concept also appears awkward and fiddly.
I wonder whether a simpler solution would assist anyone with lots of apps installed. Along with upping the number of home screens to 14—the most that could be displayed using the current UI before things start looking iffy—Spotlight could have a separate apps list page. This could be accessed by a swipe on entering Spotlight (as in, it would spatially live to the left of the standard Spotlight screen). By default, this screen would display an alphabetised list of your apps, and typing in the Spotlight field would filter them, just like the Applications folder in Mac OS X’s Finder in combination with a Finder window Spotlight-driven search field.
PwnageTool for Mac has been updated to version 3.1.4 by the DevTeam. This new update basically adds firmware 3.1.2 jailbreak support. It currently supports jailbreaking all the devices except iPod Touch 3G.
PwnageTool is currently compatible with Intel Mac only. The reason some would prefer it to blackra1n is that it allows you to ‘hacktivate’ the phone (use it without AT&T’s iPhone data plan) and the unlock is preserved even through firmware updates. However, to unlock an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS,make sure that you have a firmware 3.0 (or 3.0.1) baseband on the phone.
iPhone users can now go keyless, if they want to spend $500 for the Viper SmartStart system.
The app is available, gratis, on iTunes. But you need a Viper receiver that costs half a grand to be able to say goodbye to your keys. (If you’ve already got a Viper system, you can add on the iPhone SmartStart module for $299.)
SmartStart lets you lock or unlock your car, set the alarm, start it from remote, unlock the trunk and there’s a “panic or car finder” for those parking lot nightmares. You can also manage more than one car on it and assign more than one user per car — which the company says is great for families but somehow I imagine more “War of the Roses” shenanigans.
Cool idea, but I can’t imagine paying that for it. How much would you spend to control your car from your iPhone?
Blackra1n, iPhone hacker George Hotz’s software for 1-click jailbreaking, has been released for all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Blackra1n is currently compatible with Windows only — or “all Windows that matter,” in GeoHot’s words. I am supposing that means Windows XP, Windows Vista and hopefully Windows 7 RC. Currently, there is no word on a Mac version — but it should be released soon as well.
Famous iPhone hacker George Hotz (better known as GeoHot) claims to be working on a tool that might revolutionize the current jailbreak scenario! Called blackra1n, the tool promises to jailbreak all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices with 3.1.2 installed in just a matter of seconds, according to GeoHot. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Currently, jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod Touch is a complex and time-consuming process, requiring the creation of custom firmware, entering several different modes, etc. There are separate tools for different devices and different firmware versions. Not only this, each generally requries you to follow a different procedure. It’s a pain.
But with blackra1n, jailbreaking promises to be a few simple clicks for any iPhone or iPod Touch.
The last tool released by GeoHot was purplera1n, a simple solution, which allowed iPhone 3GS users to jailbreak any OOTB (out-of-the-box) phone with firmware version 3.0 with a single click. The procedure was simpler and less painful, compared to DevTeam’s offerings, which required you to choose between several different options. But purplera1n contained a few bugs that forced him to kill the project after the release of firmware update 3.0.1.
However, blackra1n will be quite different from purplera1n because it is based off a completely different exploit, GeoHot says. GeoHot expects to release the tool really soon although, after dealing with some technical obstacles. Hopefully, it will be out this weekend.
Hotz is a 21-year-old hacker who is famous for unlocking the first iPhone ever soon after its debut in 2007. After a break, he recently made a comeback to the iPhone scene with the release of his jailbreak and unlock solutions for iPhone OS 3.0 that offered tough competition to the DevTeam.
